Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search

mathematical project

Also known as: GIMPS

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Last updated

July 21, 2026

Quick Summary

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) is a collaborative, distributed computing project focused on finding Mersenne primes. Mersenne primes are a specific type of prime number that can be expressed in the form 2ⁿ − 1, where n is a natural number.

GIMPS enlists volunteers worldwide who download software to use their personal computers to search for these large primes. The project has been instrumental in discovering many of the largest known Mersenne primes, with incentives like monetary prizes offered for finding primes with a significant number of digits. The search for Mersenne primes is an active area in number theory and computer science.

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Mersenne prime
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) in particular has enlisted more than 150,000 volunteers, who have downloaded special software to run on their personal computers. An added inducement for searching for large primes comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which established prizes for the…
Read More
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) in particular has enlisted more than 150,000 volunteers, who have downloaded special software to run on their personal computers. An added inducement for searching for large primes comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which established prizes for the…
Read More